Today, motion pictures—from feature films, to film based commercials—are distributed and exhibited largely in the form of film. Studios produce film masters, and distributors produce film copies that are then distributed to theatres for exhibition. In the theatre, especially multi-screen ‘cineplexes’, incoming films need to be scheduled for exhibition. Specifically, the theatre home office and the theatre manager determine the auditorium and show times for a particular film. A schedule is compiled, usually describing the theatre exhibition plan for 1–2 weeks, or until a new feature is acquired. Executing a schedule typically entails moving huge rolls of film from one projector station to another station; preparing the new feature showing by splicing separate reels of film together, adding film trailers and ‘rolling advertisements’ to the beginning. Overall, it is a labor-intensive process.
There have been attempts in the prior art to automate the control of movie display electronics in a film cinema system. For instance, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,384,893 B1, which is entitled “Cinema Networking System” and was issued May 7, 2002, such a system includes a cinema controller which receives as input, information regarding start times of movies and content of corresponding film reels. The information can be input a variety of ways. In one embodiment, the information is manually entered into a file or database for subsequent reference. The publication shows (FIG. 4) an entry form that may be displayed. In this embodiment, an operator enters, either via a keyboard and/or by using a cursor control device, a description of the content of the film reels including the duration and film format of each segment. In addition, a film identifier, such as the title, is supplied along with the times it is to be played in a particular projection room. Other embodiments are also contemplated. For example, the information may be received or downloaded from a remote centralized location. Alternately, the information may be retrievable from a web site maintained to contain such information.
Over the last few years, the digitization of film has become very common for the purpose of integrating computer-generated special effects in scene content. Digitized content turns out to be much easier to handle, from the point of view of making copies, storing, distributing, and ‘touching up’. A natural outgrowth of digital special effects work is the attempt to carry the digitized content through postproduction, onto distribution and exhibition. Such a workflow is described in general as ‘digital cinema’. Recent technological advances in storage, networking and projection equipment are making digital cinema a genuine possibility.
As described by S. A. Morley, in “Making Digital Cinema Actually Happen—What it Takes and Who's Going to Do It”, SMPTE 140th Technical Conference, Pasadena, Calif., Oct. 31, 1998, digital cinema provides an ability to extend presentation capabilities beyond just showing movies. More specifically, a simple graphical computer interface can make screen scheduling easy, accurate and flexible for the theatre operator. Although no specific interface is described, Morley opines that by a simple drag-and-drop action on a PC in a theater manager's office, a movie can be scheduled to show at a certain time in a given auditorium and with a defined set of trailers and promotions, which can be changed at each show time.
Avica Technology Corp. markets a Digital Cinema Manager product that allows monitoring and control of storage server parameters by a theatre manager or engineering supervisor in a digital cinema environment. Security setting, playlist creation, content load-in and system maintenance functions can be accessed from local or network connections. Multiple servers can be monitored and controlled from a single terminal. Conversely, multiple management terminals may access an individual server. The user interface provides creation of multi-event playlists including features, trailers and promotions, and timeline based playlist management for a single auditorium at a time.
Whether automating the scheduling of film cinema or digital cinema systems, the prior art has come up short in providing a user-friendly interface, particularly in a multi-screen cineplex environment. What is therefore needed is an approach that leverages the flexibility provided by digital cinema without adding unnecessary complexity in the scheduling task.